


Ghost Time! It's Ghost Time!

by kzepplin (Sailorzeplin)



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen, this is literally written for like five people so...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sailorzeplin/pseuds/kzepplin
Summary: Must a fic be a "serious" piece of fiction, is it not enough to have gay characters that have some fun?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Ghost Time! It's Ghost Time!

It wasn’t turning out to be what you would consider a “good day” for Ethel Muggs. The investigation surrounding her two best friend’s deaths had just concluded, and the town that had once been full of possibilities felt empty and desolate. She was supposed to return to school that morning, her mother had woken her up and sat with her as she cried, and had decided to let her take just one more day. So now it was a Monday mid-afternoon, and she was laying in her bedroom on the floor trying not to think about anything for too long, when she learned that, on top of everything else, she was also apparently losing her mind.  
She had been looking through old photobooks, smiling pictures of her and Ben and Dilton seeming to mock her for being sad, when she heard the voice.  
“Hey Muggs, I’ve never known you to cut class.”  
She looked up with a start, thinking for a second that someone from school had dropped by, but no, only the empty space of her room. It almost made her cry, the depressing reality of no one coming to visit her swelling temporarily in her chest, but she supposed it was just something else to tell her therapist, and she went back to flipping through pictures, careful hands shaking just a little.

~~

Over the next few hours she hadn’t heard another voice, so she had settled back down into her routine of watching a movie and trying not to cry, when she discovered that maybe what was happening to her was more than just in her head. Not even two minutes into the opening credits for the movie, she heard that same voice from earlier.  
“Are we really watching this movie again Ethel? Last time I checked The Bijou was playing a new horror movie you wanted to watch.” But this time, there was more character to it. She recognized the voice - it was Ben Button’s: former head of the Riverdale AV Club, one of her best friends, and also the person whose funeral she had attended last Saturday. She darted her head around, looking to yell at whichever cruel prankster had decided to play a practical joke on her, but instead her eyes widened as they landed on the corner of the room.  
“Now don’t freak out, but-” Ethel did not stay conscious long enough to hear what was probably his very flimsy reason as to why she should not be scared of the ghost of her dead friend standing in her bedroom.

~~

When she awoke the situation had not gotten any less crazy. Instead of just Ben, there was now the ghostly figure of Dilton lurking in the corner, looking slightly less put together than Ben, although she reasoned that at least that was accurate to their regular lives. Just as she could feel herself working up to a major-level panic attack, Ben reached out to her, hands up and placating like he used to do when he was...when he wasn’t a ghost. This small gesture calmed her down, and she flopped back onto the pillows of her bed.  
“So...ghosts? Or am I hallucinating you two?”  
Dilton scoffed in the corner, “It’s Riverdale Ethel, ghosts is probably the easier explanation over you suddenly having a mental break.”  
“Oh I don’t know Dilton, with the way things have been going lately maybe I’ve finally just lost it.”  
“You haven’t lost it Ethel, we really are ghosts. Don’t pay any attention to Dilton over there, he’s just bitter because it took him twice as long to be able to appear as a ghost.”  
Ethel laughed as Dilton flipped Ben off, surprised at how easy it was to accept the fact that her friends were ghosts now.  
“So, did you two show up to complain, or do you want to watch a movie?” She waited for both of her friends to get comfortable, moving over to give Dilton space to sit next to her even if she wasn’t really sure if it was necessary. She still didn’t really know how this maybe-ghosts-maybe-hallucinations friend situation worked, or how exactly her friends had changed, but she was just glad that either way she was getting to spend time with them again.

~~

Turns out not much had changed. Ben and Dilton still bickered like an old couple, Ben still has his subtle southern accent that drove her crazy, Dilton still was weirdly survivalistic, despite Ethel reminding him multiple times that he was dead and he didn’t need to survive anything - “Ghost apocalypse, the rapture, ghoul hunters, Ethel there’s a lot of things I need to prepare for.” - but most important of all they remained friends. Yeah, Ethel couldn’t talk to them as much when she was out and about, although they did follow her around school and jabber constantly, but when she ordered food and went out to the bunker with them and played games and watched movies it felt exactly like it had when they were alive.  
She had taken to wearing sweaters to avoid the constant chill of ghostliness, and had learned that putting an earbud in gave her free range to talk to them if she pretended she was on the phone, and had discovered that, despite being a ghost, somehow Dilton was still capable of vaping, which pissed Ben off to no end.  
“Dilton I know you can’t get lung cancer anymore but God help me I hate that stupid fucking device.” Dilton always responded to that by blowing smoke rings in his face and flipping backwards, floating away (another thing that had changed - Ben and Dilton always hovered a few inches off the ground, which had given Dilton the height advantage to be taller than her, something he had bragged about for days, until she invested in shoe platforms and gained back her superiority). 

~~

Ethel had also discovered that, aside from her, no one else could see Ben and Dilton. This had led to a few awkward conversations with her mom before she had learned to keep her ghost-talk under wraps. She had tried to subtly ask others if they could hear or see them, but they mostly looked at her like she was crazy (Jughead and Veronica) or asked if she needed a walk to the nurses office (Archie and Betty). That last person had been the subject of long and obnoxious bullying from Ben and Dilton.  
“Really Ethel? Betty? You went from the boyfriend to the girl herself, huh?” Dilton had said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.  
“Dilton that’s not super fair, is it? We know you had a thing for Jughead for a while too.” Dilton blushed bright pink then, Ethel doing her best to stifle laughter as she walked with Betty, having taken her up on the nurse’s office offer, which caused the blonde to look even more concerned.

~~

They were now coming up on the one-month anniversary of Ben and Dilton’s ghost-hood, and Ethel had decided that they needed to do something to celebrate. They obviously couldn’t throw a party because, well, duh, but she had thought that a quiet night in with a movie would be fun, considering they couldn’t really eat or go places together. She decided to set it all up in the bunker (which she had thoroughly sanitized after discovering what Veronica and Archie and Betty and Jughead had been using it for) trying her best to make it something special, because it wasn’t everyday that your friends had the anniversary of the day they turned into full-time ghosts. When Ben and Dilton had found out about it, following behind her as she led them to the surprise, they had both reacted how she had expected. Ben had become sappy and emotional, thanking her over and over for thinking of them, and Dilton had laughed at him for crying, but had thanked her later on after Ben had fallen asleep.  
“No problem Dilly-boy, although according to Ben your one month ghost anniversary should technically be tomorrow, you know, because of you ‘performance issues’ and all.”  
“You know what Muggs? I take it back, this party is terrible and I hate you so much.”  
“Oh you know you love me ghost face.”  
“Yeah well...yeah. I do.”  
Ben stirred a bit in his sleep, and Dilton and Ethel quickly cozied up next to him. Even if she technically couldn’t feel them right next to her, she quickly fell asleep, knowing that her friends were right beside her.


End file.
